Arab Democratic Party political relations official Rifaat Ali Eid accused on Tuesday the Free Syrian Army of being involved in the latest round of clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, while adding that the Mustaqbal Movement has also been smuggling arms to Syria.

He said during a press conference: “The Mustaqbal Movement has been inciting the residents of Tripoli to attack the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood.”

In addition, he revealed that arms shipments from the movement had been arriving through Tripoli's port in order to be smuggled to Syria.

“We have been purchasing what we can of these shipments,” he said.

“The Mustaqbal Movement no longer has control of the fighters in the city as they are now all being controlled by the Free Syrian Army,” Eid continued.

“All sorts of weapons had been smuggled from Syria to Lebanon recently. We were therefore forced to wage a two-hour battle with the fighters in order to demonstrate to them who they were dealing with and I think that they understood our message,” he added.

The battle led to the deployment of the Lebanese army in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, he said.

The army has long been deployed in the Jabal Mohsen area, he noted.

The latest round of fighting between the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods erupted in light of the news of the death of a number of Lebanese fighters in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh.

The fighters, who hail mainly from he North, were killed in an ambush set up by Syrian regime forces on November 30.

On the incident, Eid declared: “We were the first to demand that the corpses of the victims be returned to Lebanon.”

Three of the corpses were returned to their loved ones on Sunday.

“We have no problems with the residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh, but we take issue with the officials who held talks with the residents. The blood of the dead of Tall Kalakh and Tripoli is on their hands,” he stated.

Addressing Mustaqbal Movement leader former PM Saad Hariri, he said: “Any plans you have for Jabal Mohsen will fail and we will not be dragged to strife.”

“All that Hariri gained in the latest round of violence is the death of 17 innocent people in Syria and another 17 innocent people in Lebanon,” he said.

Eid noted that the situation in Lebanon spiraled out of control after the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on October 19.

“Why should we pay the price of the deaths of Tall Kalakh? Why should we pay the price of Hasan's assassination? They should take their case to Hariri,” he stressed.

On the possibility of Jabal Mohsen fighters handing over their weapons, he said: “We are willing to hand them over in exchange for guarantees.”

“We will not agree to any reconciliation that does not guarantee the Alawites all of their rights,” he remarked.

“If some sides believe that Alawites are a source of trouble in Lebanon, then we demand that an Alawite be represented at cabinet and the national dialogue. I am a Lebanese citizen and I pay my dues to it and it should repay me,” he suggested.

Eid also urged the government to provide the residents of Tripoli with compensations for the losses they incurred in the latest round of fighting.

well mowaten, you accuse me of bias propaganda! what do you want me to say?
you defend blindly m8 without willing to admit that this eid character is scum and a shabiha, while I ask for all weapons to be removed.
who is inciting?
your blindness is getting worse.

of coarse of coarse.. only m8 leaders speak the truth.. and you have undeniable proof that they speak the truth.. what a failure you are.. this guy is a kid.. who was armed by the Syrian government based on their sect (funny i thought the Baath was not sectarian)

last i checked Saqr did not "admit" to arming jihadists as you claim.. for hariri...
and even if they were.. and i honestly high five them if they do... did you ever pause for a second and say that HA is actually fighting there??? akeed la2.. you only see with one eye.. how about you open both for a change?
rifaat eid deserves no representation in the lebanese govt. as far as i am concerned he pledged his allegiance to Syria.. so they can give him a representative in the house of baath (it will be short lived now)..
and like i said many times before.. we are just returning some of the weapons that came from syria..:D
you wanted weapons by supporting the party of weapons... well now you have it.. now you whine when things are not looking good? funny how you were so proud of the weapons when things were going in your favor.
Allah yistor what will happen.. but HA and the M8 (fractured) coalition brought it upon themselves.

mowaten, i wanted to read what the link had to say, even though it is al-akhbar.. but the "page is no longer there" do you have another link i could read the same thing in?
now to the point, i am not denying arms are being smuggled through to syria from lebanon.. probably by future and others.. but why is that a problem when one faction in HA is also interfering and fighting in syria?
both sides are getting involved, or sorry, got involved, and i am all for the trial of one if the other is tried as well, but you cannot ask for sakr's head without asking for the other.
whats kosher for one is kosher for the other no?

scratch that mowaten, i got it.
like i said, while this is al-akhbar, and i will not automatically trust something a biased media outlet (we have loads of them in Lebanon on both sides) says, i still, like i said, do not doubt that they are sending arms shipments. but again..one group does it.. and another group does it... lets cut both heads off... sound good?

thats your belief mowaten... and you are entitled to it.. but common sense will dictate HA to help one of his biggest allies.. i am sure they will not give up on the "axis of resistance" without a fight.

This is 100% true..
they were the first people who spread the photos of dead body mentioning on the top : Assad Army in Jabal Mohasen.
and they expect from their parents to watch silently ??
they are a cancer in Tripoli.. unfortunately

Is there anything that M8 does not complain about? Is there ever a positive comment that comes out of their mouth? your whining so much it's the only response the world has come to expect from M8 in general.

LOL! what is the problem if some lebanese help the syrian revolution? isn t it what aoun always wanted? to oust the assads? lol
listening to M8 ers they ll soon tell us that hariri armed all the rebels and the revolution is hariris one! LOL they are not afraid to appear ridiculous , but they ll do anything to defend their beloved bashar and his system responsible for the deaths of thousands in lebanon! but they support hezbolaha for helping this very same regime that killed and still kills lebanese! M8 patriots? biggest joke ever... more syrians than the syrians themselves!!!

they have a little recording released by alakhbar known to be close to hezbis and do not wonder if it is an objective piece of news or fabricated? lol so much for objectivity!
and they say that the Times and so on talked about it? yes but based on infos from....alakhbar.... LOL

A person cannot claim to be a Lebanese citizen or a citizen of any country for that matter if he defends the interests of a foreign government. When you put up more pictures and posters of the Assad family than you do the Lebanese flag that makes you an agent of a foreign government. Moreover, let's not forget that this 'person' openly asked for the re-occupation of Lebanon by the Syrian army only a year ago. I am comfortable however that these people along with all other Bashar's allies will end up in cow crap hole of history and they will be nothing but bad memories.

Jabal Mohsen's people are truly victimized by Hariri and his salafi thugs. How dare anyone expect this minority sect to hand over their arms? Put yourself in their shoes, would you hand over your only means of defence? Plus, why take out the anger and hatred on these people for the Tal Kalkh incident? Blame the extremist (salafis) that recruited these kids to fight a war that doesn't involve them.. Rifaat Ali Eid's comments are spot on and to the point..